The drive from LA Bay south was beautiful, the desert is greener than I ever saw before and the road is exceptionally well maintained.  Besides glimpses of the Pacific and wishes that it was warmer so we could explore we also saw quite a few bird’s nests one with these birds in it.  I wish I had a bird book and I may download one on my Kindle.

We flew through Gurrero Negro without even stopping, except for “Agricultural Fumigation” where we paid 20 pesos and they didn’t spray our car!

 

 

Unfortunately,  I can’t say that we saw much of Santa Rosalia, we hit the out skirts of the town and rather than turning left into the town we decided to check out the camping sites and set up then go back later to see it.  Sadly the first camping spot we had heard about was closed, the second one was a little on the skivvy side and before we knew it, it was 3 o’clock and we were in Mulege… oh well we missed it.  Mulege is a cute little village on the side of a River next to the ocean.  The streets are cobbled rather than paved and they are also a size medium and our truck is an extra-large.  One good thing about this is that it forces Fritz to drive slowly so I check out the town… the bad side is it leads to a lot of comments like “really, can this street get any smaller?” to which I think in my head, yep and it probably will!   We headed off toward the beach but turned around before we got there.  Instead we spent our second night in a row in a hotel, right next door to a laundry mat so now we have clean clothes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner was street tostadas and flautas which were surprisingly difficult to find.  We decided to head still further south (yes it is still too cold I have on 2 long sleeve shirts, my UGG boots, I am kind of inside and I am STILL cold!)  We got a good tip on a camping spot 35 miles south of Loreto from some hippy kids who have be backpacking for the last month. 

We arrived at Loreto around 1PM on Saturday only to find it still cold and still windy.  There is nothing worse than camping on a windy beach with sand blowing everywhere and a tent that is about to fall over, all this can be done in relative comfort but only if it is warm enough that you aren’t huddled in a truck.  Yes we are wimps and there are people who camp in the snow, during snow storms, but not in Baja and I am not one of them. 

 

 

 So once again we chose a hotel.  This time because it was early we asked around a few… the first was $790 pesos, the second $650 but w/o parking, we found one that had parking for $500 it was right in the center of town and looked promising if a bit shabby, then we found one on the outter edge of town, $700 pesos with parking and a kitchenette, it also had a swimming pool and hot tub, guess which one we chose? 

Now I am the first to admit, this is NOT what this trip was supposed to be like, we had dreams of camping on sandy beaches, taking the SUP’s out every day, living the lives of Gypsies, staying in one place for a few days then moving on… What we’ve been doing is more like race, driving 4 to 5 hours a day, staying in hotels, not really spending anytime in anyone place, but as with everything in life you make adjustments and learn as you go.  And we are.  Our rough plan now is to head to LA Paz, check out the ferry to Mazatlan and then decide if we stick around Baja or not.  I would love to see Cabo San Lucas, find Chucks old house and finally get in the water, but the weather reports says more of the same.  We are being flexible and not making any set plans, that is what this trip is about but I did check out the weather in Mazatlan and while the highs are in the low 70’s the lows are in the upper 50’s and that sounds better to me!